With Opening Day less than a month away, consider this a public service announcement…

Remember back when years were so unique and special that each one’s designation began with a “1”? Baseball, the finest spectator game on Earth, was played in venues where proximity to the action on the field was more important than vending opportunities, both edible and wearable; where polite enthusiasts — with true though harsh realities of place in mind — were not only engrossed with the wonder of the play before them, but realized that fellow fans were just as rapt, and that each had the right to continue this enjoyment without interruption.

Fully cognizant that humankind was unlikely to retain these optimal values through the changing years that were coming, a band of fans — through the ingenuity and talent of a scribe among them by name of Matt Villano — sought to codify real-world rules designed to teach future enthusiasts what was great about the game, and how to partake in that enjoyment to the betterment of all. Fashioned in Box 622 (high above and directly over the playing field of the real Yankee Stadium, the one south of 161st Street in the Bronx and rightly referred to as the Baseball Cathedral), Baseball 101 is a true artifact of a time when “delight” was the goal, not demographics.

Eighteen simple rules, with two indices, and pay no mind to those who favor one rule, No. 16, let’s say, over another. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

You can tell it’s a #tbt photo because they’re not playing the game at that exact moment. Yes, that’s right. We actually felt the game was more important than snapping a photo showing that we were there.